Back
Then,
by Larry Chabot
Big
theater in a small town
Ontonagon is one of the oldest towns on Lake Superior,
first settled in 1843 and visited by an odd mix
of the famous: Mary Todd Lincoln, Prince Napoleon,
Civil War Generals Phil Sheridan and George Meade
(who was working on the harbor when called to
war), Herbert Hoover and a fake Elvis. This 165-year-old
village of 2,000 now boasts one of the finest
entertainment venues in the Upper Peninsula in
a building half as old as the town.
After World War I, an Ontonagon business group
lobbied for a building honoring township war veterans.
Voters agreed, passing a bond issue, 448-194.
Opened in 1924, the three-story Memorial Building
housed township and village offices, which had
been scattered in several storefronts. Other users
were the Am
erican
Legion, library, wedding parties, theater groups
and a district court. It featured an auditorium
with stage, and a never-used, heavily fortified
projection booth, built to protect patrons from
the highly explosive nitrate film used in early
movies.
Historian Andy Lockhart said the main floor, with
its chairs removed, was home court for the semipro
Blue Devils basketball team made up of former
high school stars. A 1939 Ontonagon Herald reported
the team was shunned for several years by rivals
who refused to play in this odd place.
But this year, school officials made it
possible to use the new high school gym, and with
that, Ontonagons application for a franchise
in the league was approved, the paper stated.
As the building aged, its character and appearance
changed. A government agency took over the auditorium,
dividing it into offices and a hallway. The third
floor, blocked off by a locked door, began deteriorating
from lack of use. The ceiling was falling in,
hardwood floors were buckling, junk piled up.
When the second floor tenant moved out, the seediness
spread. Village offices vacated, too. The township
considered knocking the building down.
But Carol Reid of Ontonagon had other ideas. She
and Lockhart toured the upper floors, and it wasnt
easy.
To reach the auditorium on the second floor,
we had to squeeze through a crawl space in the
balcony, Reid said. To reach the area
under the stage, we had to climb a steep set of
stairs from the first floor. There was no bathro
om
there, no heat, no water, and junk everywhere.
Carol stood on the bare stage and looked out into
the dark theater.
I remembered being on that stage for high
school plays, she said. I envisioned
a theater full of people. I could almost feel
my parents standing next to me, saying Do
it!
She and like-minded citizens gathered in December
1997 at the home of the late Royce Willman to
plan the resurrection of the top floors as a state-of-the-art
community and regional theater. The others present
were Janet Wolfe, Tom Strong, Dana Brookins, and
later, George Pestka. This pioneer group formed
the Ontonagon Theater of the Performing Arts (OTPA).
With zero money, a mountain of work, but incurable
optimism, the hardy band plunged in. Contractor
Norman Pestka tore down the temporary structures,
saved the good wood and insulation, and hauled
the rest to a landfill, that allowed free dumping.
Using the salvaged wood, the stage was extended
ten feet to bring the performers closer to the
audience. The result was a forty-nine-foot-by-forty-nine-foot
surface, complete with wings. Then ceilings and
floors were repaired.
Lack of money became a real problem. Businessman
Tom Lee offered his grant-writing skills to prepare
a successful request for $29,000 in seed money
from the Michigan Council for the Arts. Subsequent
requests were written by board members, ultimately
providing about $400,000. The Arts Council told
the OTPA it appreciated how they planned their
dream project in logical steps.
Among those steps was main floor seating. They
ordered 342 seats with 1920s-type styling, which
were installed so no view is blocked. A sample
chair with sales information was placed in local
businesses to raise funds. The $250 chairs were
sold at $250 so the outlay was recouped. Buyers
get to put a memorial plaque on the chair back,
which appealed to groups, clubs, families, high
school classes, even casts of long-ago plays.
Former resident John Harry gave the fund-raiser
a huge boost by buying twenty chairs. Now, all
but fifty have been sold. The sponsored seats,
says the OTPA, will provide a lasting memorial
for a loved one.
In addition to grants and chairs, a financial
angel appeared in the person of Dr. John H. Reiger,
a sociology professor at the University of Louisville,
who spends summers in Ontonagon doing research.
Reiger bought chairs in honor of local citizens
who helped him. For this and other generosities
(improving acoustics and lighting), the John H.
Reiger Award was named for him. The most recent
recipients were Betty and Dale Parent of Ontonagon,
whose late daughter Jennifer was a country music
singer in Nashville. The Parents sponsor an annual
talent show named for Jennifer.
Reigers donation for acoustics underwrote
the expenses of Dr. Mohan Rao and his Acoustics
and Noise Control class at Michigan Tech, which
undertook the job as a class project. Before the
change, Reid said a stage band would blow you
right out of the place . . .
Larry Chabot